West Ham United academy director Terry Westley has reportedly impressed the club’s hierarchy so much he is set to land a new deal.
There was a huge Tony Carr shaped hole at West Ham when the legendary youth coach left the club in 2016.
The man responsible for bringing through Frank Lampard and Rio Ferdinand left an ambassadorial role with the Hammers after 43 years of service in 2016.
As West Ham’s academy director, Carr was responsible for nurturing Jermain Defoe, Joe Cole, Michael Carrick, Glen Johnson, Lampard and Ferdinand as well as having a hand in John Terry’s early development before he left for Chelsea.
He helped earn the club more than £70 million in transfer fees during his time with the East Londoners.
His departure left many fans disappointed.
But what supporters probably could not foresee was that his understudy Terry Westley would take over so seamlessly and rejuvenate an academy where the conveyor belt had slowed considerably since the golden generation.
The West Ham academy was once the gift which kept on giving to club and country.
But Mark Noble, Jack Collison and James Tomkins are the only youth players to have established themselves in the last decade with Collison now retired through injury and Tomkins sold to Crystal Palace.
Under Westley, though, there has been a marked improvement.
A host of young players have been knocking on the door of the first team squad with Grady Diangana the latest to follow Declan Rice’s footsteps by shining for the first team with a brace in an 8-0 Carabao Cup win over Macclesfield.
Connor Coventry and Joe Powell also featured while Nathan Holland is another notable homegrown starlet tipped for big things.
According to well-connected West Ham news website Claret & Hugh, the Hammers hierarchy have been so impressed they want to tie Westley down long-term.
“His and his team’s success in producing so many kids with first team chances right now is bound to encourage parents to pledge their children’s future to a club where they get their chances and right at this moment that is West Ham,” the Claret & Hugh report states.
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